ANOTHER SUPERMARKET? SHIRLEY NOT

21-09-2006

Another supermarket? Just what Shirley needs. Not! Tonight protestors will be taking to the streets to campaign against a giant Asda store which, amongst other things, will swallow part of the local park.

Asda will be the heart of major new development incorporating apartments and up to 20 new shops - the local regeneration agency Shirley Advance says that well-known names like TK Maxx and Next are interested.

The argument in favour of the scheme runs something like this: although there are already several major supermarkets in the area, including Sainsbury's and Tesco, they are away from the main town centre and so have contributed to its decline.

The new plan, on the other hand, will bring people back into town and so help the existing traders as well as the new ones.

A great idea in theory. It's just that very few people in Shirley believe it, and protestors will be gathering at the Civic Centre in Solihull at 6pm today.

Local resident John Horton says: "Never mind the big Tesco and Sainsbury's. We've also got an M&S food store, and Aldi and a Morrisons.

"Shirley needs many things, but another supermarket isn't one of them.

"To make it worse they are going to build on parkland, and I thought green space was sacrosanct."

The campaigners have the backing of their local MP Lorely Burt, and they echo complaints by local residents in the Washwood Heath and Hodge Hill.

They'll have a new giant superstore down the road at the Swan in Yardley, another at the old Washwood Heath bus garage, but still Birmingham Council is looking positively at a massive Tesco at the Fox and Goose which will eat into Brockhurst playing fields - again in the face of opposition from an MP, this time Liam Byrne.

Both Solihull and Birmingham councils say they can't object to developments like this on the grounds that there are simply too many supermarkets. Maybe not. But they could try and use the loss of open space and extra congestion as legitimate reasons.